Brief Description:
A comprehensive overview and reinterpretation of Portugal's formation and history up to 1807 and of its wide-flung maritime empire.

Marc Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Table of Contents:
Volume I: 1. Hunter-gatherers to Iron Age farmers; 2. The Roman experience; 3. The Germanic kingdoms; 4. Gharb al-Andalus; 5. The medieval kingdom; 6. The fourteenth century; 7. The making of Avis Portugal; 8. The golden age; 9. The tarnished age; 10. Habsburg Portugal; 11. Restoration and reconstruction; 12. The age of gold and Baroque splendour; 13. The age of Pombal; 14. The late eighteenth century: finale of the old regime. Volume II: 1. North Africa; 2. Exploring the coasts of Atlantic Africa; 3. Engaging with Atlantic Africa; 4. The Atlantic islands and fisheries; 5. Breakthrough to maritime Asia; 6. Empire in the East; 7. Informal presence in the East; 8. Brazil: seizing and keeping possession; 9. Formation of colonial Brazil; 10. Late colonial Brazil; 11. Holding on in India: the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; 12. Eastern empire in the late colonial era: peripheries.

Review Quotes:
"This two-volume study by historian Disney (La Trobe Univ.) fills a much-needed void in English-language publications related to the history of Portugal and the Portuguese empire from its beginnings to 1807. Essential." -Choice

Review Quotes:
"...this two-volume work offers a significant contribution to the study of the history of Portugal and its empire. It is to be recommended for undergraduates, graduates and the general public interested in Portuguese history." -Ca'tia Antunes, European History Quarterly

Contributor Bio:Disney, A R
A. R. Disney was educated at Oxford and Harvard and has taught history at Melbourne and La Trobe Universities. His publications include Twilight of the Pepper Empire (1978) and numerous articles, papers, and essays, published variously in the Economic History Review, Studia, Indica, Mare Liberum, Anais de Historia de Alem-mar, and other journals and proceedings.